Speaker 1: It is Friday afternoon in Jerusalem, and the sky has
Speaker 1: gone dark in the middle of the day. On a
Speaker 1: hill just outside the city walls, three Roman crosses stand
Speaker 1: against that blackened sky. The middle cross holds the body
Speaker 1: of a man who, just hours ago was dragged through
Speaker 1: the streets, beaten beyond recognition, and nailed to rough timber
Speaker 1: in front of a screaming crowd. His name is Jesus
Speaker 1: of Nazareth, and he is dead. The disciples who followed
Speaker 1: him for three years gone scattered. Peter, the one who
Speaker 1: swore he would die before abandoning Jesus, has already denied
Speaker 1: knowing him three times. The others are hiding behind locked
Speaker 1: doors somewhere in the city, terrified that the same authorities
Speaker 1: who killed their teacher are coming for them next. The
Speaker 1: Roman soldiers are still there, dividing up the dead man's
Speaker 1: clothing like it is a yard sale. The religious leaders
Speaker 1: are still there, too, satisfied they got what they wanted.
Speaker 1: The Pharisees and Sadducees, who spent months plotting this execution,
Speaker 1: are watching the final breath leave his body. It is finished.
Speaker 1: Their problem is solved, And in this moment, when everyone
Speaker 1: who loved. Jesus is running away, and everyone who hated
Speaker 1: him is celebrating. One man does something that nobody expected.
Speaker 1: He walks straight to the Roman governor's palace. He requests
Speaker 1: a private audience with Pontius Pilot, the most powerful political
Speaker 1: figure in the region, and he asks for the body.
Speaker 1: Not a disciple, not a family member, not one of
Speaker 1: the twelve who had traveled with Jesus across Galilee. A
Speaker 1: member of the Sanhedrin, a member of the very court
Speaker 1: that just sentenced Jesus to death. His name is Joseph.
Speaker 1: He is from a town called Arimathea, and his story
Speaker 1: might be the most underrated act of courage in the
Speaker 1: entire Bible. Here is what gets lost in most English translations.
Speaker 1: When the Gospel of John introduces this man. The original
Speaker 1: Greek uses a specific word to describe him. The word
Speaker 1: is kekrimenos. It means hidden, concealed, kept secret on purpose.
Speaker 1: John chapter nineteen, verse thirty eight says Joseph was a
Speaker 1: disciple of Jesus, but kekriminos secretly because he feared the
Speaker 1: Jewish authorities, not because he was unsure, not because he
Speaker 1: was halfway committed. He was afraid and given what he
Speaker 1: knew about the men he sat with every day in
Speaker 1: the Sanhedrin, he had every reason to be Think about
Speaker 1: what that means for a second. This man sat in
Speaker 1: the highest religious court in Israel, seventy one members, the
Speaker 1: supreme authority on Jewish law, theology, and community governance. These
Speaker 1: were the same men who had been tracking Jesus for months,
Speaker 1: sending spies to his sermons, trying to trap him with
Speaker 1: trick questions, and Joseph was in the room for all
Speaker 1: of it. Imagine going to work every day and sitting
Speaker 1: across the table from people who despise the one person
Speaker 1: who has changed your life. Imagine hearing the mock what
Speaker 1: you believe, plot against someone you love, and you cannot
Speaker 1: say a word because if they find out, you lose everything,
Speaker 1: your seat on the council, your reputation, your livelihood, may
Speaker 1: be your life. That is what Cakriminos looks like in practice.
Speaker 1: And he was not alone. The Gospel of John tells
Speaker 1: us there was another man hiding in plain sight, nik Kademus,
Speaker 1: you might remember him. He is the Pharisee who came
Speaker 1: to Jesus at night in John chapter three because he
Speaker 1: could not risk being seen during the day, and notice
Speaker 1: that detail at night. John does not include that by accident,
Speaker 1: the streets of Jerusalem were dark and empty. Nobody would
Speaker 1: see a Pharisee knocking on the door of a Galileean rabbi.
Speaker 1: Nobody would report back to the council. Nicodemus needed the
Speaker 1: cover of darkness to have a conversation that could ruin
Speaker 1: his career. And what did he say when he got there, Rabbi,
Speaker 1: we know that you are a teacher who has come
Speaker 1: from God. We know plural. Nicodemus was not speaking only
Speaker 1: for himself. He was telling Jesus that there were others
Speaker 1: on the council, others among the elite, who recognized who
Speaker 1: he was. They just could not say it publicly. Then
Speaker 1: Nicodemus asked one of the most famous questions in all
Speaker 1: of Scripture, how can a man be born again? And
Speaker 1: Jesus answered with words that have echoed through two thousand
Speaker 1: years of history. For God so loved the world that
Speaker 1: he gave his only begotten son. That conversation happened at night,
Speaker 1: in secret, between a terrified religious leader and the man
Speaker 1: he believed was sent by God, and the whole time
Speaker 1: Nicodemus knew that if anyone found out, it was over
Speaker 1: for him. Two men, both members of the ruling religious elite,
Speaker 1: both secretly following a Galilean carpenter they believed was the Messiah,
Speaker 1: both terrified of what would happen if any one found out,
Speaker 1: both living double lives inside the most dangerous institution in
Speaker 1: the country for someone who believed what they believed. Now,
Speaker 1: before we go further into what Joseph did that Friday afternoon,
Speaker 1: we need to understand who he actually was, because the
Speaker 1: details the gospel writers include are not random. Every word
Speaker 1: was chosen for a reason. Mark's Gospel calls Joseph a
Speaker 1: prominent member of the council. The Greek word there is euskemon.
Speaker 1: It literally means of good form, but in first century
Speaker 1: usage it described someone of high social standing, wealth and
Speaker 1: public respect. This was not some fringe member who sat
Speaker 1: in the back row. Joseph was prominent. People knew his name,
Speaker 1: his opinion carried weight. Luke adds another layer. He calls
Speaker 1: Joseph good and righteous, using the Greek words agathos and dichios.
Speaker 1: In Jewish culture, being called diachios was not casual praise.
Speaker 1: It meant someone who lived in alignment with the Torah,
Speaker 1: someone whose life reflected genuine devas devotion to God. Luke
Speaker 1: is telling us that this was not a politician playing
Speaker 1: both sides. Joseph's faith was real, deep, and known to God,
Speaker 1: even if it was hidden from the council. And then
Speaker 1: Luke drops one more detail that might be the most
Speaker 1: important clue of all. He says Joseph was waiting for
Speaker 1: the kingdom of God. The Greek phrase is pros dikomenos
Speaker 1: ten basileyan two tho. That word prosdkomenos means to eagerly expect,
Speaker 1: to look forward to with anticipation. It is the posture
Speaker 1: of someone who believes something is coming and has oriented
Speaker 1: their entire inner life around it. This man was not
Speaker 1: casually curious about Jesus. He was a devout, wealthy, respected
Speaker 1: elder who had staked his private hope on the coming
Speaker 1: of God's kingdom, and somehow in the teachings and miracles
Speaker 1: of a cup from Nazareth he recognized it. So where
Speaker 1: is Arimathea? This is one of those small Biblical mysteries
Speaker 1: that scholars have debated for centuries. The name likely corresponds
Speaker 1: to ramathimes of Fim, a town mentioned in First Samuel
Speaker 1: as the birthplace of the prophet Samuel. It sat in
Speaker 1: the hill country of Ephraim, roughly twenty miles northwest of Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: Some scholars link it to the modern village of Renis
Speaker 1: in the West Bank. Others place it closer to Ramalah.
Speaker 1: What matters more than the exact GPS coordinates is what
Speaker 1: the identification tells us. Joseph was not from Jerusalem. He
Speaker 1: was from a smaller town, probably from an established family
Speaker 1: with land and influence. He had risen to a position
Speaker 1: on the Sanhedrin, which meant he had earned the respect
Speaker 1: of the religious establishment over many years. His entire social
Speaker 1: wars the world was built on his reputation within that system,
Speaker 1: and that system had just executed the man he believed
Speaker 1: was the son of God. Think about that weight for
Speaker 1: a moment. This is not abstract theology. This is a
Speaker 1: man watching the people he works with every day murder
Speaker 1: the person who gave his life meaning, and he is
Speaker 1: sitting there silent because he is afraid of what they
Speaker 1: will do if he speaks up. If you have ever
Speaker 1: been in a room where everyone around you believed something,
Speaker 1: you knew was wrong, and you stayed quiet because the
Speaker 1: cost of speaking felt too high. Then you already know
Speaker 1: something about Joseph of Arimathea. Maybe it was not a
Speaker 1: religious council, maybe it was a dinner table, or a
Speaker 1: boardroom or a group chat. But the feeling is the same,
Speaker 1: that not in your stomach when conviction and fear are
Speaker 1: pulling in opposite directions. Joseph lived with that not for months,
Speaker 1: maybe years, And we can actually trace when it got worse,
Speaker 1: because the Gospels give us a timeline, and if you
Speaker 1: follow it carefully, you can see the pressure building inside
Speaker 1: Joseph like water behind a dam. A few weeks before
Speaker 1: that Friday, something happened in a small village called Bethany,
Speaker 1: about two miles east of Jerusalem. A man named Lazarus,
Speaker 1: a close friend of Jesus, had been dead and buried
Speaker 1: for four days. His body was already decomposing. His sisters
Speaker 1: Martha and Mary, were in mourning, and Jesus walked up
Speaker 1: to the sealed tomb and said two words, Lazarus, come out.
Speaker 1: And Lazarus came out, wrapped in burial cloth, stumbling into
Speaker 1: the daylight alive. Word of this reached Jerusalem Fast and
Speaker 1: John chapter eleven, verse forty seven tells us exactly what
Speaker 1: happened next. The chief priests and the Pharisees called an
Speaker 1: emergency meeting of the Sanhedrin. Joseph was in that room.
Speaker 1: They were panicking, what are we accomplishing? They said, this
Speaker 1: man is performing many signs. If we let him go
Speaker 1: on like this, every one will believe in him, and
Speaker 1: then the Romans will come and take away both our
Speaker 1: temple and our nation. The political calculation was naked. This
Speaker 1: was not about theology. This was about power. If too
Speaker 1: many people followed Jesus, Rome would see it as an
Speaker 1: insurrection and the Sanhedrin would lose its authority. And then Caiaphas,
Speaker 1: the High Priest, stood up and said something that echoes
Speaker 1: through history. You do not realize that it is better
Speaker 1: for you that one man die for the people than
Speaker 1: that the whole nation perish one man and die for
Speaker 1: political convenience. And everyone in that room nodded. Joseph heard
Speaker 1: that sentence, He heard the highest religious authority in his
Speaker 1: nation calmly propose the murder of the man he believed
Speaker 1: was the Messiah, and he could not say a word.
Speaker 1: Have you ever sat in a room and heard someone
Speaker 1: say something that made your blood go cold, and looked
Speaker 1: around and realized you were the only one who felt it,
Speaker 1: that everyone else was nodding. That is where Joseph was
Speaker 1: the loneliest seat in Jerusalem. Then came Passover week. Jesus
Speaker 1: entered Jerusalem riding a donkey while crowds waved palm branches
Speaker 1: and shouted Hosanna. He walked into the temple and overturned
Speaker 1: the tables of the money changers. He taught openly in
Speaker 1: the temple courts, while the Sanhedrin sent agents to find
Speaker 1: a way to arrest him. Quietly away from the crowd,
Speaker 1: Joseph watched all of this unfold from inside the institution
Speaker 1: that was plotting it. Every day that week he went
Speaker 1: to the council, heard the latest strategy to trap Jesus,
Speaker 1: and said nothing. Every night he went home carrying the
Speaker 1: weight of what he knew was coming. By Thursday evening,
Speaker 1: when Judas led the temple guards to the garden of
Speaker 1: gethsemone and Jesus was arrested, Joseph already knew he had
Speaker 1: been watching this train wreck approach for weeks, and when
Speaker 1: they dragged Jesus into the High Priest's house for that
Speaker 1: illegal midnight trial. Joseph was there, but something was about
Speaker 1: to change because Luke tells us one more thing about
Speaker 1: that Friday, and it changes everything we think we know
Speaker 1: about what happened inside the Sanhedrin the night before. Luke
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three, verse fifty one five Greek words that
Speaker 1: rewrite the entire trial narrative of hutos uk and sinhka
Speaker 1: tata taimenos tabula. This man had not consented to their
Speaker 1: decision and action. That word sinca tata taimenos is dense.
Speaker 1: It is a compound verb meaning to vote together with
Speaker 1: to place one's approval alongside, and Luke says Joseph did
Speaker 1: not do it. He did not consent, He did not
Speaker 1: add his vote to the pile. Now think about what
Speaker 1: that implies. The Sanhedrin trial of Jesus described in Matthew
Speaker 1: and Mark happened at night. This is critical Jewish legal tradition.
Speaker 1: In the Mishnah specifically prohibited capital trials at night. The
Speaker 1: law required that capital cases be heard during the daytime,
Speaker 1: that the verdict be delivered the following day to allow
Speaker 1: for reconsideration, and that witnesses be examined separately to prevent collusion.
Speaker 1: There were also rules about when trials could not take
Speaker 1: place at all, including the eve of a sabbath or
Speaker 1: a festival day. The trial of Jesus violated nearly every
Speaker 1: one of these safeguards. It was held at night in
Speaker 1: the private residence of the High Priest caiaphas, not in
Speaker 1: the official hall of hewn Stone, where the Sanhedrin normally convened.
Speaker 1: The witnesses brought forward could not agree with each other.
Speaker 1: Mark says, their testimonies did not match, and the verdict
Speaker 1: was delivered immediately on the same night, with no waiting
Speaker 1: period for reconsideration. Why does this matter because it means
Speaker 1: Joseph was sitting in a room watching a rigged proceeding.
Speaker 1: This was not justice. This was a predetermined outcome dressed
Speaker 1: up in the appearance of a legal process. The powerful
Speaker 1: men around him had already decided what the verdict would
Speaker 1: be before the first witness opened his mouth, and Joseph
Speaker 1: was there. He watched it happen. He saw the High
Speaker 1: Priest tear his robes and declare Jesus guilty of blasphemy.
Speaker 1: He heard the crowd around the council chambers screaming for blood.
Speaker 1: And when the vote came, Joseph did something that most
Speaker 1: of us would never have the courage to do. He
Speaker 1: said no, or, more precisely, he refused to say yes.
Speaker 1: In a room full of the most powerful religious authorities
Speaker 1: in the nation, when the political pressure was suffocating and
Speaker 1: the mob outside was demanding execution, Joseph of Arimathea withheld
Speaker 1: his consent. We do not know if he spoke up openly.
Speaker 1: We do not know if he argued against the verdict
Speaker 1: or simply sat in silence while others raised their hands.
Speaker 1: Luke does not tell us those details, but he does
Speaker 1: tell us the result. Joseph's hands were clean of that vote.
Speaker 1: When every other voice in that chamber said guilty, his
Speaker 1: was not among them. And Nicodemus we know from John
Speaker 1: chapter seven that he had already tried once to defend
Speaker 1: Jesus in front of the Pharisees, asking does our Lord
Speaker 1: judge a man without first hearing him? They shut him down. Immediately.
Speaker 1: Are you from Galilee two? They sneered. The implication was clear,
Speaker 1: defend this man and you become the enemy too. So
Speaker 1: here are two men sitting in that chamber during the
Speaker 1: most corrupt trial in history, knowing it is wrong, knowing
Speaker 1: the verdict is predetermined, and unable to stop it. Have
Speaker 1: you been there, Not at a trial, obviously, but at
Speaker 1: the moment where you see something happening that you know
Speaker 1: is wrong, and the power structure around you has already decided,
Speaker 1: and your voice feels so small against the machinery that
Speaker 1: you convince yourself staying quiet is the only option. Joseph
Speaker 1: was there, and for one night he stayed quiet. But
Speaker 1: then Friday came, and Friday changed everything. Because there is
Speaker 1: a moment in every person's life when the cost of
Speaker 1: silence becomes greater than the cost of speaking, when what
Speaker 1: you are watching happen is so wrong, so final, so devastating,
Speaker 1: that the fear that kept you hidden just breaks. For
Speaker 1: Joseph of Arimathea, that moment was watching Jesus die, and
Speaker 1: look at who else was there? Mark, Chapter fifteen, Verses
Speaker 1: forty and forty one. While the twelve Apostles the Inner Circle,
Speaker 1: the men who had eaten with Jesus and walked with
Speaker 1: him and promised to follow him to death. While all
Speaker 1: of them had vanished, a group of women stood watching
Speaker 1: Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, is
Speaker 1: Salomi and others. Mark says they had followed Jesus from
Speaker 1: Galilee and cared for his needs. They were there. They
Speaker 1: did not run. They stood on that hill and watched
Speaker 1: the man they loved suffocate on a Roman cross. But
Speaker 1: notice what Mark says about their position. They were watching
Speaker 1: from a distance upp Omacrathen, from far off, close enough
Speaker 1: to see, but far enough to be safe. They were present,
Speaker 1: but they were not intervening. They could not intervene. They
Speaker 1: were women in a world controlled by Roman soldiers and
Speaker 1: Jewish elders. They had no political standing, They had no
Speaker 1: legal authority. All they could do was watch and grieve.
Speaker 1: Now hold that image in your mind. The apostles have fled,
Speaker 1: The women are watching from a distance, The soldiers are
Speaker 1: dividing up the clothing. Religious leaders are satisfied, And into
Speaker 1: that scene walks Joseph, not from a distance, not hiding,
Speaker 1: not watching, walking directly into the center of Roman power
Speaker 1: to claim the body of a condemned man. The contrast
Speaker 1: is staggering. The people who had the least to lose,
Speaker 1: the twelve disciples, who were nobodies from Galilee, they ran
Speaker 1: the people who had the most to lose, a wealthy
Speaker 1: Sanhedrin member whose entire reputation and career were on the line,
Speaker 1: he stepped forward. That is what makes this moment so extraordinary.
Speaker 1: And it starts with one Greek word Mark, Chapter fifteen,
Speaker 1: verse forty three. And here is where the Greek text
Speaker 1: reveals something extraordinary. Mark uses a word to describe what
Speaker 1: Joseph did next, and this single word tells you everything
Speaker 1: about the transformation that happened inside this man between on
Speaker 1: Thursday night and Friday afternoon. The word is tolmesas it
Speaker 1: comes from the verb tolmao, which means to dare, to
Speaker 1: have courage, to be bold enough to do something that
Speaker 1: involves serious risk. This is not the bravery of someone
Speaker 1: with nothing to lose. Tol Maao is the courage of
Speaker 1: someone who knows exactly what they are risking and does
Speaker 1: it anyway. Mark says, Joseph Tolmesus, having dared, went to
Speaker 1: Pilot and asked for the body of Jesus. Read that again.
Speaker 1: Having dared, Mark wants you to understand that what Joseph
Speaker 1: did next was not normal. It was not expected, it
Speaker 1: was not safe. It was an act of defiance that
Speaker 1: could have cost him his career, his standing, his freedom,
Speaker 1: and possibly his life, and he did it any way.
Speaker 1: Here is why it mattered so much. Under Roman law,
Speaker 1: when someone was executed by crucifixion, the body typically belonged
Speaker 1: to Rome. Crucifixion was not just a death sentence, it
Speaker 1: was a statement. The body was often left on the
Speaker 1: cross for days as a public warning birds and animals
Speaker 1: would consume it. The family was denied a proper burial.
Speaker 1: That was the point. Rome wanted you to see what
Speaker 1: happens when you challenge the empire. For a Jewish man
Speaker 1: to walk into the Roman governor's palace and request the
Speaker 1: body of a man who was just executed for claiming
Speaker 1: to be a king, a direct challenge to Roman authority,
Speaker 1: was extraordinary. Joseph was essentially walking up to Pilot and saying,
Speaker 1: I am publicly associating myself with this condemned criminal. I
Speaker 1: am claiming his body. I am giving him the burial
Speaker 1: that Rome deliberately denied. Pilot was surprised, and the Greek
Speaker 1: word mark uses here is worth pausing on ethelmisen. He marveled,
Speaker 1: He was astonished. This is not mild curiosity. This is
Speaker 1: a Roman governor, a man who had overseen dozens of crucifixions,
Speaker 1: genuinely taken aback that a victim had died this quickly.
Speaker 1: Crucifixion was designed to be slow. It was Rome's masterpiece
Speaker 1: of cruelty. The victim's weight would slowly compress the lungs,
Speaker 1: making each breath a conscious battle against gravity. Most victims
Speaker 1: lasted two or three days. Some survived even longer. The
Speaker 1: soldiers at the base of the cross were trained to wait.
Speaker 1: They knew the timeline six hours was almost unheard of.
Speaker 1: So Pilot did something that reveals how seriously he took
Speaker 1: this request. He summoned the centurion, the officer who had
Speaker 1: been standing at the foot of the cross all afternoon.
Speaker 1: This is the same centurion who, according to Mark, chapter fifteen,
Speaker 1: verse thirty nine, had watched the way Jesus died and said, truly,
Speaker 1: this man was the son of God. That centurion Pilot
Speaker 1: called him in and asked directly whether Jesus was already dead.
Speaker 1: The centurion confirmed it, and only then did Pilot release
Speaker 1: the body. Think about this scene for a moment. Joseph
Speaker 1: is standing in the praetorium. The Roman governor's official residence, waiting.
Speaker 1: He has just asked for the body of a man
Speaker 1: executed for sedition against Rome. Pilot is across from him,
Speaker 1: studying this well dressed Jewish elder, probably wondering what his
Speaker 1: angle is. A centurion is called in to testify. Official
Speaker 1: Roman confirmation of death is given, and then Pilot, for
Speaker 1: reasons the text does not fully explain, says yes. Some
Speaker 1: scholars believe that Pilot may have felt guilt over the execution.
Speaker 1: He had already told the crowd, I find no fault
Speaker 1: in this man. He had washed his hands publicly. Granting
Speaker 1: the body to a respected elder may have been his
Speaker 1: way of distancing himself from the ugliness of what the
Speaker 1: Sanhedrin had pressured him into. Whatever his reasons, the body
Speaker 1: was released, and Joseph walked out of that palace carrying
Speaker 1: a burden that no one else in Jerusalem was willing
Speaker 1: to touch. And now the clock was ticking. In Jewish practice,
Speaker 1: the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday. Once the Sabbath started,
Speaker 1: everything stopped work, travel, handling, the dead, burial rights, all
Speaker 1: of it was forbidden until the following evening. And this
Speaker 1: was not just any Sabbath. The next day was also
Speaker 1: the first day of Passover, the holiest festival in the
Speaker 1: Jewish calendar. The urgency was extreme. To leave a body
Speaker 1: unburied overnight was considered a violation of Deuteronomy chapter twenty one,
Speaker 1: which commands that a dead body must not remain hanging
Speaker 1: on a tree overnight, but must be buried that same day.
Speaker 1: For a man like Joseph, who Luke describes as Dikaios righteous,
Speaker 1: fulfilling this command was not optional. It was a matter
Speaker 1: of obedience to the Torah itself. So picture the scene.
Speaker 1: Joseph has just left Pilot's palace with permission to take
Speaker 1: the body. The sun is already dropping toward the horizon.
Speaker 1: He has to get to Golgatha, take a crucified body
Speaker 1: down from a cross transport it, prepare it for burial,
Speaker 1: and seal the tomb before sunset. All of this with
Speaker 1: a body that has been scourged, pierced, and hanging for hours.
Speaker 1: He bought fine linen the Greek word is sinndon, a
Speaker 1: clean white cloth of high quality. This was not cheap
Speaker 1: burial fabric. This was the linen of a wealthy man,
Speaker 1: purchased for a specific purpose. In Jewish burial practice, the
Speaker 1: body would be washed with warm water in a ritual
Speaker 1: called rachitza, a final act of dignity and purification. Then
Speaker 1: it would be wrapped tightly in the linen, with the
Speaker 1: spices packed between the folds to slow decomposition and to
Speaker 1: honor the dead. Joseph took the body down from the
Speaker 1: cross himself or with the help of servants, wrapped it
Speaker 1: in the sindon, and carried it to a tomb, his tomb,
Speaker 1: his personal, never before used tomb, carved into solid rock
Speaker 1: in a garden near the crucifixion site. Matthew's Gospel emphasizes
Speaker 1: that it was Joseph's own new tomb, one he had
Speaker 1: hewn out of the rock. He gave away his own
Speaker 1: burial place in a culture where your tomb was your
Speaker 1: final statement of status and legacy. Joseph handed his over
Speaker 1: to a dead carpenter from Nazareth, and then John tells
Speaker 1: us something that makes this scene even more profound. Joseph
Speaker 1: was not alone. Nicodemus came too, the same Nicodemus who
Speaker 1: had come to Jesus by night, who had tried to
Speaker 1: defend him in the council and been ridiculed for it.
Speaker 1: Nicodemus showed up with seventy five pounds of myrrh and aloes.
Speaker 1: Seventy five pounds. That is not a modest gesture. That
Speaker 1: is a burial fit for royalty. Two secret disciples, side
Speaker 1: by side, performing the most intimate act of devotion imaginable,
Speaker 1: washing the blood from a broken body, wrapping torn flesh
Speaker 1: in clean linen, packing burial spices into the folds, placing
Speaker 1: the body gently into the cold stone shell for a tomb,
Speaker 1: and doing all of it knowing that by morning every
Speaker 1: member of the Sanhedrin would know what they had done.
Speaker 1: There was no going back. The secret was over. But
Speaker 1: the story of that tomb was not finished yet, because
Speaker 1: the next morning, Saturday, while the whole city rested for
Speaker 1: the Sabbath, the chief priests and the pharisees did something
Speaker 1: unexpected Matthew, chapter twenty seven, verse sixty two. They went
Speaker 1: back to Pilot. The same men who had pressured Pilot
Speaker 1: to crucify Jesus were now standing in his palace again,
Speaker 1: and this time they were nervous. Sir, They said, we
Speaker 1: remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said,
Speaker 1: after three days, I will rise again. So give the
Speaker 1: order for the tomb to be made secure until the
Speaker 1: third day. Otherwise his disciples made come and steal the
Speaker 1: body and tell the people that he has been raised
Speaker 1: from the dead. Read that carefully. The men who engineered
Speaker 1: the execution of Jesus were afraid of a dead man.
Speaker 1: They remembered his predictions. They took his words seriously enough
Speaker 1: to go back to the governor and request military protection
Speaker 1: for a sealed grave. Pilot granted the request. Roman soldiers
Speaker 1: were dispatched to the garden tomb. The stone was sealed
Speaker 1: with an official Roman seal, which meant that breaking it
Speaker 1: was a crime against the Empire. Armed guards stood watch
Speaker 1: over the entrance Joseph's tomb. The tomb he had given
Speaker 1: away in an act of courage and grief, was now
Speaker 1: under military lockdown. The same institutional power that Joseph had
Speaker 1: defied by claiming the body was now trying to keep
Speaker 1: that body permanently contained. The irony is almost unbarable. They
Speaker 1: sealed the tomb with the authority of Rome. They posted
Speaker 1: soldiers with swords. They placed an imperial seal on the stone.
Speaker 1: Every tool of political and military power was deployed to
Speaker 1: make sure that what was inside that tomb stayed inside
Speaker 1: that tomb. It did not work, but we will get
Speaker 1: to that. There is something worth noticing here, though. The
Speaker 1: same system that punished Joseph for standing up was now
Speaker 1: scrambling to contain the consequences of what he had done.
Speaker 1: Every institution that tried to silence the truth ended up
Speaker 1: proving how terrified they were of it. If you have
Speaker 1: ever taken a stand and watched the backlash come and
Speaker 1: wondered whether it was worth it, hold that thought, because
Speaker 1: what happened next at Joseph's tomb answers that question. Now
Speaker 1: Here is something that Bible readers often pass over too quickly,
Speaker 1: but it is staggering when you stop and see it.
Speaker 1: Seven hundred years before Joseph of Arimathea walked into Pilot's palace,
Speaker 1: the prophet Isaiah wrote a passage about a suffering servant
Speaker 1: Isaiah chapter fifty three. It is one of the most
Speaker 1: debated and analyzed prophecies in all of Scripture, and verse
Speaker 1: nine says this he was assigned a grave with the
Speaker 1: wicked and with a rich man. In his death, with
Speaker 1: the wicked and with a rich man, Jesus was crucified
Speaker 1: between two criminals, that is, the grave with the wicked,
Speaker 1: and then a rich man, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin,
Speaker 1: came and placed the body in his own expensive tomb,
Speaker 1: that is, with a rich man. In his death. Joseph
Speaker 1: of Arimathea probably had no idea he was fulfilling a
Speaker 1: seven hundred year old prophecy. He was not checking boxes
Speaker 1: on a theological checklist. He was acting out of grief,
Speaker 1: out of love, out of a courage that had finally
Speaker 1: broken through years of silence, And in doing so, he
Speaker 1: stepped into a roll that had been written for him
Speaker 1: centuries before he was born. That should stop you for
Speaker 1: a second, because it raises a question that goes way
Speaker 1: beyond ancient history. What if the thing you have been
Speaker 1: afraid to do, the conviction you have been hiding, the
Speaker 1: truth you have been sitting on, is not just about you.
Speaker 1: What if your moment of courage is connected to something
Speaker 1: bigger than you can see right now? Joseph could not
Speaker 1: see the full picture on Friday afternoon. All he could
Speaker 1: see was a dead man who deserved a proper burial.
Speaker 1: He could not see Sunday morning. He could not see
Speaker 1: the empty tomb. He could not see that the place
Speaker 1: he was laying that body would become the most signal,
Speaker 1: unificant location in human history. He just did the next
Speaker 1: right thing, at enormous personal cost, with no guarantee of
Speaker 1: how it would turn out. And that brings us to Sunday.
Speaker 1: Because the tomb where the resurrection happened it was not
Speaker 1: a random cave, It was not a donated space from
Speaker 1: some anonymous benefactor. It was Joseph's tomb. The stone that
Speaker 1: the women found rolled away on Sunday morning was the
Speaker 1: stone that sealed Joseph's personal burial chamber. The linen cloths
Speaker 1: that Peter found folded inside were the sindom that Joseph
Speaker 1: had purchased and wrapped around the body with his own hands.
Speaker 1: The garden where Mary Magdalen stood weeping, where she turned
Speaker 1: and saw someone she thought was the gardener, that was
Speaker 1: the garden where Joseph's family tomb was carved into the hillside.
Speaker 1: Every detail of the resurrection story is physically connected to
Speaker 1: the sacrifice of a man who spent most of his
Speaker 1: life hiding. And consider the practical cost. In first century Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: a rock hewn tomb was one of the most expensive
Speaker 1: things a family could own. It took stonecutters months to
Speaker 1: carve a burial chamber out of solid limestone. Wealthy families
Speaker 1: used these tombs for generations, placing each family member on
Speaker 1: a stone shelf as they died. For Joseph to give
Speaker 1: his new, unused tomb to someone else meant his own
Speaker 1: family would need to find another burial place. It meant
Speaker 1: he was surrendering one of his most valuable assets, and
Speaker 1: he did it for a man the government had just
Speaker 1: labeled a criminal mark. Chapter fifteen, verse forty seven tells
Speaker 1: us something else that is easy to miss. Mary Magdalene
Speaker 1: and Mary, the mother of Jose's, were watching. They saw
Speaker 1: where the body was laid. These women tracked the exact
Speaker 1: location of the two whom they memorized the spot because
Speaker 1: they planned to come back after the sabbath to finish
Speaker 1: the anointing that the rush of Friday afternoon had left incomplete.
Speaker 1: So when they arrived on Sunday morning and found the
Speaker 1: stone rolled away, they knew they were at the right place.
Speaker 1: There was no confusion, There was no mistaken tomb. They
Speaker 1: had watched Joseph place the body there with their own eyes.
Speaker 1: There is something almost poetic about that the man who
Speaker 1: kept his faith secret for years became the one whose
Speaker 1: personal property became the stage for the most public event
Speaker 1: in the history of faith. His private tomb became the
Speaker 1: world's most famous empty grave. And here is one more
Speaker 1: thing that deserves attention. All four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
Speaker 1: and John named Joseph of Varimathea by name that is significant.
Speaker 1: In the ancient world, written records named people who were
Speaker 1: known to the community. When Mark and the other writers
Speaker 1: included Joseph's name, they were pointing to a real person
Speaker 1: that their readers could verify. Early church historians understood this.
Speaker 1: Joseph was not a legend or a literary device. He
Speaker 1: was a man that first century Christians in Jerusalem remembered.
Speaker 1: His name survived because his courage survived one act on
Speaker 1: one afternoon, and two thousand years later we are still
Speaker 1: talking about him. What happened to Joseph after that Friday?
Speaker 1: The Bible does not tell us. He disappears from the
Speaker 1: narrative after the burial. Later traditions written centuries after the
Speaker 1: Gospels claimed that Joseph traveled to Britain and established the
Speaker 1: first Christian church, at Glastonbury. Some medieval legends connect him
Speaker 1: to the Holy Grail, but these are stories built on tradition,
Speaker 1: not scripture. The honest answer is that we do not
Speaker 1: know what Joseph did next, and maybe that is the point.
Speaker 1: Maybe his story is not about what came after. Maybe
Speaker 1: the entire weight of his legacy rests on a single
Speaker 1: afternoon when a frightened man stopped being frightened. Because here
Speaker 1: is what we do know. The early Church remembered him.
Speaker 1: When the gospel writers sat down to record the death
Speaker 1: and burial of Jesus, they could have simply written, a
Speaker 1: rich man took the body and buried it. They did
Speaker 1: not need to name him, but they did, all four
Speaker 1: of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They named his town,
Speaker 1: They described his character, They recorded his membership on the council.
Speaker 1: They wanted the world to know who this man was,
Speaker 1: because what he did mattered. So what does this mean
Speaker 1: for you right now? Today? Joseph's story is not a
Speaker 1: museum piece. It is a mirror, and the question it
Speaker 1: asks is uncomfortable. Is there something in your life right
Speaker 1: now that you believe but have not said out loud.
Speaker 1: Maybe it is your faith. Maybe it is a conviction
Speaker 1: about how things should be done at work, or in
Speaker 1: your family, or in your community. Maybe it is a
Speaker 1: creative calling that the people closest to you would not understand.
Speaker 1: Maybe it is a line you refuse to cross while
Speaker 1: everyone around you is crossing it, and you have been
Speaker 1: pretending that does not bother you. I am not asking
Speaker 1: because I know your answer. I am asking because Joseph's
Speaker 1: story forces the question. He sat in the Sanhedrin for years, watching, waiting, silent,
Speaker 1: and if the story had ended on Thursday night, we
Speaker 1: would never have heard his name. He would have been
Speaker 1: just another leader who chose comfort over conviction. But the
Speaker 1: story did not end on Thursday night. Friday came, and
Speaker 1: on Friday Joseph discovered something that changes everything. Once you
Speaker 1: see it. There comes a moment when the pain of
Speaker 1: hiding becomes greater than the pain of being seen. The
Speaker 1: Greek word is ptolemasus. He dared not because the fear
Speaker 1: went away, not because the risk suddenly disappeared, not because
Speaker 1: someone gave him permission or guaranteed the outcome. He dared
Speaker 1: because he reached the point where staying silent was no
Speaker 1: longer something he could live with. So the question is
Speaker 1: not whether your moment is coming, It is whether you
Speaker 1: will recognize it when it does, and what you will
Speaker 1: do when staying hidden starts to cost you more than
Speaker 1: stepping forward. Joseph stepped forward, and his empty tomb changed
Speaker 1: the world. If this story hit you the way it
Speaker 1: hit me the first time I dug into the Greek text,
Speaker 1: I need you to do me one thing. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: this channel, because we go this deep every single week.
Speaker 1: We pull apart the original Hebrew and Greek, we dig
Speaker 1: into the history that most people skip, and we connect
Speaker 1: it to the stuff you are actually going through right now.
Speaker 1: The video on screen right now goes into the full
Speaker 1: story of Nicodemus, the other secret disciple who showed up
Speaker 1: with Joseph that Friday afternoon. His story is just as wild.
Speaker 1: I will see you there.